Flow Overview

Flow allows you to visualize what changed in your pipeline over a given period of time. It can quickly show you opportunity movement (which deals were lost, won, slipped, downgraded, etc.).

Note: Data might be different in Analytics visuals (Pulse, Waterfall, Funnel, Flow, Trend) versus data you see when you drill down into the Opportunities Module. This usually happens because in the Opportunities Module, Clari queries Salesforce and gets live data, but in Analytics, data refreshes every 15 minutes.

In this article, you'll find:
 

• Flow Analytics Module overview
• Basic Orientation
• Reversing the Flow and Viewing Individual Deals
• Custom Date Ranges
• Start State Definitions
• End State Definitions
• Filters & Settings
• Tips for Using Flow
• FAQs

 

Basic Orientation 

 

a. Time: Select the timeframe that you want to view deal movement across. This will determine the Start Date (e) and the End Date (f) in Flow. 

b. Start Pipeline: The Start value represents the total open pipeline at the beginning of the selected time frame. 

c. End Pipeline: The End value represents the total open pipeline at the end of the time frame plus the value of the deals won during the time frame. You'll also see the positive or negative delta from the Start beneath the End value.

d. New: The total amount of newly created pipeline during the period.

e. Lost: The amount of pipeline lost during the period.

f. Start Date: The start date of the set time frame in Flow.  Flow shows deals as they were at 12:01 AM on the Start Date.

g. End Date: The end date of the set time frame in Flow. Flow shows deals as they were at 11:59 PM on the End Date.

h. Pipe: Hover your mouse over a pipeline to see the number of deals that went from the start to the end stage and the total dollar amount of those deals at the end state.

i. Chart Options: Check or un-check the boxes in the Chart Options bar to add or remove a Start State or End State (and the deals in that Start State or End State) from your Chart in Flow).
 

Reverse a Flow and Viewing Individual Deals  

Click any End State section to see where deals start from at the beginning of your chosen timeframe: 

 

Click on any bucket or pipeline to see the details of the deals in that state. This will take you to the Inspect Module. To go back to Flow, click on the link in the top left corner of the Opportunity Grid to return to Flow.

 

 

Custom Date Ranges 

Set the stage for your analysis by defining the dates for your closing opportunities and their movement through the pipeline. You are looking at the deals with a specific Close Date period and their movement within a specific time frame. 

Custom date ranges can be beneficial for analyzing your pipeline across monthly or weekly timeframes and across multiple quarters or fiscal years.
 

 

• By default, the Flow question reads: How did opportunities closing this quarter move through the pipeline this week?
• You could set the Flow to look at opportunities closing This Quarter and their movement during This Quarter.
• For a QBR, you would set Flow to look at opportunities closing Last Quarter, moving through the pipeline Last Quarter.
• For organizations focused on monthly timeframes, use monthly or weekly parameters.
• If pipeline is evolving next quarter, some users will want to answer the question: How did opportunities closing next quarter move through the pipeline this week?
• Perform pipeline analysis up to 2 fiscal years in the past and up to 1 fiscal year in the future without any restrictions across quarterly boundaries (i.e., How did opportunities closing January 1st, [last year] to December 31st, [last year] move through the pipeline January 1st, [last year] to December 31st [last year]?).

Note: "This Week" and "Last Week" are based on the time settings in your CRM.
 

Start State Definitions

New: Deals that did not exist at the start of the period but matched all filter criteria by the end of the period.

Pulled In: Deals that matched the scope and filter criteria at the start of the period but had a close date in a future period at the time and had a close date in the analysis period by the end.

Pushed In: Deals that matched the scope and filter criteria at the start of the period but had a close date in a past period at the time and had a close date in the analysis period by the end.

Gained Ownership: Deals that matched the filter criteria at the start and end of the period and had a close date in the analysis period but were owned by someone in a different part of the hierarchy than the currently selected one at the start.

Lost Ownership: Deals that matched the filter criteria at the start and end of the period and had a close date in the analysis period at the start, but the ownership changed to a different part of the hierarchy than the current one selected by the end. 

New Open: Deals that were not in the pipeline for the selected filter and scope at the start of the period for any reason—but are by the end and are still open by the end.

Won: All deals that are in one of the categories at the start of the period that match the filter, scope, and date criteria by the end and are closed won.

Lost: All deals that are in one of the categories at the start of the period that match the filter, scope, and date criteria by the end and are closed lost.

Idle: All deals that were in the pipeline for the selected filter and scope at the start of the period and are still in the same forecast category or stage.

Upgraded: All deals that were in the pipeline for the selected filter and scope at the start of the period and progressed to a later stage or forecast category by the end of the analysis period.

Downgraded: All deals that were in the pipeline for the selected filter and scope at the start of the period and regressed to an earlier stage or forecast category by the end of the analysis period.

Other: All deals that match the filter, scope, and date criteria by the end of the analysis period but don't fall into any of the categories above. This should hopefully be a minimal set of deals. 
 

End State Definitions

Won: Deals that were won during the time frame selected.

Downgraded: Forecast category was downgraded (example: commit to best case). Depending on the configurations for your organization, you may see stages instead of Forecast categories.

Upgraded: Forecast category was upgraded (example: best case to commit).

Idle: No change to the forecast category during the time frame selected.

Slipped: Deals that were pushed out of the time frame.

Lost: Deals that were lost during the time frame.

New: Deals that were initially not in play for the quarter at the beginning of the time frame. 
 

Won Deals

By hovering over the Won category in Flow, you'll see a few different segments of won deals like, Pulled in Won, Pushed in Won, and New Won.

These segments have to do with the time period and the time frame selected in Flow. Pushed in Won means that an opportunity had a close date before the selected time period in Flow at the beginning of the selected time frame, and that opportunity was updated to a Closed Won within the time frame.

Pulled in Won is similar, but at the beginning of the selected time period, the close date was in the future (after the end of the time period selected in Flow), and the deal ended up Closed Won within the time frame in the current view of Flow.

New Won means that the deal did not exist in CRM at the start of the time frame selected in Flow but was created and ended up Closed Won by the end of the time frame.
 

Filters and Settings

The Filters row at the top of the page allows you to select specific criteria to refine your data. The data in Flow will dynamically adjust based on your selection(s). 
 

 

• Filters: Contains Scope and other reference fields from your Opportunities Grid. You can select multiple filters to drill down to different regions, sales reps, or other criteria.
• Chart Settings: Select the Amount field and Date field that you want to use in Flow.
• Breakdown By: You can also break down deals by other criteria, like Forecast Category as shown above.
• Date: You can choose a date as a filter, like Close Date. 

 

Other Settings

• Flow Analytics supports multiple currencies, allowing you to view the data by each currency.
• By default, the breakdown field in Flow will break down the opportunities by Forecast Category. Flow can break down the opportunities by Stage too. You can also add other breakdown fields using any field that is in your Clari instance, and that is a picklist field.

 

Tips for Using Flow

Here are a few things to check out when using Flow:

 

• Commit deals that slipped: Click on the Slipped bucket, and you'll be able to see if any of those slipped deals were in commit. There will be a pipe that connects the Commit bucket to the Slipped bucket, and you can click on that pipe to see those deals. Check to see if they have slipped out of your quarter altogether. Coach your team to close these deals ASAP.
• Commit deals that were lost: Click on the Commit bucket on the left side and see if any of the commit deals were lost. This is especially helpful to check near the end of the quarter.
• New deals that came in: Click on the New bucket on the right side and see deals that came in towards the end of the time frame. If there are deals in the New bucket that came from being Pulled In, then reps could be sandbagging.